You were sent with him to keep him from running.
well, that wasn't a good idea since i had just torn my ACL
(But he wasn't going anywhere, He was quite happy that day) 
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The thrill of skiing fresh snow vs the drive to get there?
- Thread starter focker
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well, that wasn't a good idea since i had just torn my ACL
(But he wasn't going anywhere, He was quite happy that day) You've got a good point there. The extra mass needs more force to get it back on the right path, once it gets a bit too much off the line.
It's sort of like the benign under-steer Chevy built into their big wagons; it does make loosing the back end a we bit harder, but it also makes reeling it in a lot harder. I would have preferred a little more aggressive steering geometry, but that's just me.
As to the the weight interfering with the front drive - rear drive comparison, there was a front wheel drive big car, the Oldsmobile Toronado. It also suffered from front wheel drive under-steer, and since the drive wheels were in front, application of deliberate trailing throttle over-steer required a lot more skill.
I know Josh has a lot of snow driving experience, and I seem to remember he has even done some track racing. But I wonder if he has ever driven an ancient tank of a car. There are many things they do worse but a few they do much better.
When I was a lot younger and living in Minnesota people there would buy "winter beaters" to drive November through March keeping their good car stored in a garage or under cover. Most of those were old chevys and pontiacs with trunks full of sand bags.. Dual purpose for the sand bags.. Gives the rear wheels bite and balances the car... And, can use the sand to put down where needed if the sand trucks haven't made it there yet..
In the 1960's my dad put cinder blocks in the trunk evert winter. On the other hand, we had a short but steep driveway and for as long as I could remember there were parallel scars in the asphalt about 5 feet long where the tires had dug through the snow and kept on digging.
In my younger days I loved driving in the snow. I would throttle steer every corner in my Impreza. I still kind of like it but I'm much mellower now that I drive a full sized truck. I remember a few ridiculous drives to go skiing that I probably wouldn't do now including a couple where the drive had more snow than the mountain.
For those people that hate driving in the rain are you using Rain-X? You don't even need to actually apply it, just get the Rain-X washer fluid and you'll be able to see in the rain and road spray. I will, personally, never use anything else. I've even drained out the blue stuff if it was put in when my vehicle was serviced and put the good stuff in.
For those people that hate driving in the rain are you using Rain-X? You don't even need to actually apply it, just get the Rain-X washer fluid and you'll be able to see in the rain and road spray. I will, personally, never use anything else. I've even drained out the blue stuff if it was put in when my vehicle was serviced and put the good stuff in.
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- Nov 12, 2015
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In my younger days I loved driving in the snow. I would throttle steer every corner in my Impreza. I still kind of like it but I'm much mellower now that I drive a full sized truck. I remember a few ridiculous drives to go skiing that I probably wouldn't do now including a couple where the drive had more snow than the mountain.
For those people that hate driving in the rain are you using Rain-X? You don't even need to actually apply it, just get the Rain-X washer fluid and you'll be able to see in the rain and road spray. I will, personally, never use anything else. I've even drained out the blue stuff if it was put in when my vehicle was serviced and put the good stuff in.
I just refilled the blue stuff and thought really hard on the rain x. I guess I wish I had pulled trigger on the rain x. My neighbor swears by the Mercedes proprietary solution. He jokes that he is probably billed $50 to top it off. Not sure if anyone has feedback on that stuff.
Front wheel drive donuts in the parking lot are MUCH better than rear-wheel donuts. (Hint: Do them in reverse).
I scared my friend a little when driving my front-wheel-drive car on the snow last season. I hit a patch of ice and the front wheels started sliding. Added a little gas to straighten out and he was "OH SHIT, DON'T GO FASTER!" But the steering was recovered.
In RWD or FWD, the changing of the speed and the changing of the direction should be done independently (not at the same time) on ice or snow. There's that thing called vector addition that makes the tires slide when doing both direction changes and speed changes at the same time.
I scared my friend a little when driving my front-wheel-drive car on the snow last season. I hit a patch of ice and the front wheels started sliding. Added a little gas to straighten out and he was "OH SHIT, DON'T GO FASTER!" But the steering was recovered.
In RWD or FWD, the changing of the speed and the changing of the direction should be done independently (not at the same time) on ice or snow. There's that thing called vector addition that makes the tires slide when doing both direction changes and speed changes at the same time.
I actually find it easier to drive in a snowstorm. As I get older, long monotonous hours on the interstate are a problem. Challenging conditions keep me alert.
That's about the same drive time from Long Island to Mt Snow.. did it a couple times. And, only doable if you get up REALLY because traffic will kill you of you leave after 5am . Piece of cake to do that, ski all day, and drive back by 10 pm when I was in my twenties..
The dark side of this equation is my day yesterday. Leaving early, white-knuckle drive over an icy mountain pass to get to the resort to find 6-8 inches of new snow and still falling heavily--only to spend half the morning scraping all that fresh new snow off of a shortened GS course so we could get to the nice firm surface below and run the race. Powder day and race day: all the trouble on the road with none of the reward on the hill. 
Not that I was rooting against the snow; we need every flake we can get.
Not that I was rooting against the snow; we need every flake we can get.
We still talking about snow?
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Ha ha yeah, snow. My race league has plenty of flakes already.
Man I guess our group would deal with racing on powder vs canceled due to lighting and thunderstorms. You wanna trade situations?
So my 9 hour trip home yesterday from Belleayre to NJ has me thinking. How much are you willing to suffer to get a powder day? I mean, I know people who will sleep in the parking lot the night before. Not me. But, I'm not sure a 9 hour, 146 mile drive will discourage me at all the next time it's supposed to snow in the Catskills on my day off.
